Tale As Old As Time
by Julia451
Summary: My turn! What might the film Zootopia have looked like if told with the songs from Beauty and the Beast? Judy/Nick, obviously.
1. Prologue

The film started out with a montage of newspaper photos and headlines as a narrator said:

 _Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a group of mammals lived in the shining city of Zootopia. Although they had everything their hearts desired, many of the mammals were spoiled, selfish, and unkind._

 _Then, one turbulent year, a gentle, little ewe introduced herself to the city and offered all prey a chance for power over the predators that had oppressed them, in return for electing her to power over them. Repulsed by their terrifying appearance, the prey sneered at the predators and constantly turned them away. Many warned them not to be deceived by appearances, for one's true nature is found within. But when they dismissed this naïve ideal time and time again, she saw the means to rise to power._

 _Little did they know that behind closed doors, the little sheep's sweetness melted away to reveal a cruel, ruthless villain. Predators tried to make excuses for themselves, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no good in any of them. And as punishment, she used a powerful drug to transform them into hideous beasts and placed a powerful spell of fear on the city and all who lived there._

 _Fed up with the monstrous form society had given him, one fox concealed himself behind a mask of indifference and callousness, with the persona of a cunning con artist as his only means of interacting with the world – so he had lived since he was 12-years-old. If he ever met prey he could respect and trust, and saw they respected and trusted him as well, then he vowed his scamming ways would be over; if not, he vowed to remain the beast society saw him as for all time. As the years passed, he fell into despair and lost all hope..._

 _For who could ever learn to love a beast?_


	2. More Than This Provincial Life

The scene faded in from black to a beautiful shot of the sun rising over a sign welcoming you to Bunnyburrow before panning over to a female bunny climbing up out of the entrance to a burrow. She was dressed in a simply pink shirt and jeans and had a messenger bag slung over right side. With a smile softened by a sigh of apparent boredom, she walked over to a bicycle locked in a rack, unlocked it, and pushed it over the grass towards a dirt road, while singing:

 _Little town, it's a quiet village  
_ _Every day like the one before  
_ _Little town full of little mammals  
_ _Waking up to say..._

Immediately, the windows and doors of buildings and trapdoors of other burrows opened to emit her neighbors: "Good day! Good day! Good day! Good day! Good day!"

The bunny stopped pushing her bike and looked at a fruit stand a few paces away, which an older male and female rabbit were approaching with their arms full of merchandise. The sight prompted her to sing:

 _There go Mom and Dad to their stand like always  
_ _The same old fruits and veggies to sell  
_ _Every morning just the same  
_ _Since our ancestors first came  
_ _To this poor provincial town_

The older buck called to her, "Morning, Jude!"

She went over to him. "Morning, Dad."

"Where you off to?" he asked as he placed a tray of fruit pies on the counter.

"The post office. My scores on the police exam should be arriving today. I'm sure I passed the written exam, and during our last training session, my instructor reminded me to..."

"That's... nice," her father said nervously, as if the subject scared him. He looked from side to side as if looking for a different subject. "Uh... Bonnie! The blueberries! Hurry up!" Judy shrugged, climbed on her bike, and peddled away, the townsmammals singing after her as she went past:

 _Look there she goes  
_ _That doe is odd, no question  
_ _Will her crazy plans ever stop?  
_ _Never part of any crowd  
_ ' _Cause her head's up on some cloud  
_ _No denying she's a funny one, that Hopps_

Judy likewise observed her neighbors as they went about their business:

 _Hello!  
_ _Good day!  
_ _How is your family?  
_ _Hello!  
_ _Good day!  
_ _How is your wife?  
_ _I need six jars!  
_ _That's too expensive!_

Judy finally pulled up outside the post office and dismounted, singing:

 _There must be more than this provincial life_

"Ah, Judy," the smiling raccoon behind the counter said as she entered.

"Good morning," Judy said as she went to her family's box. "Came to learn my future."

"Scores in already?"

"Oh, I can't wait! Has anyone else gotten theirs?" She began rifling through the envelopes she'd pulled out.

The raccoon laughed. "Not since we opened 30 minutes ago."

"That's all right," Judy said absentmindedly as she tore open an envelope. "And... I... I passed!"

"You passed?!" The raccoon cleared his throat and adjusted his surprised tone. "Con-congratulations..." Or tried to.

"You know what this means?!" Judy said as she practically danced around the room. "I can see it now! Far off places, daring gunfights, all night stakeouts, undercover in disguise..."

"I... wish you the best of luck."

"Oh, thank you! Thank you very much!" Judy said as she stuffed the papers into her bag and rushed outside, unaware that her outburst had attracted a small audience. The onlookers unplastered their faces from the window before she came out and tried to look natural until she was back on her bike, heading home. Only then did they begin singing:

 _Look there she goes  
_ _That doe is so peculiar  
_ _Lost in her dreams of being a cop –  
_ _The hero who saves the day...  
_ _Does she even know she's prey?  
_ _What a puzzle to the rest of us is Hopps_

It was then that Judy rode up to her friend – a black sheep in her senior year of college – sitting under a tree, making notes on a book she was reading. Judy looked over her shoulder and saw it was one of her favorites – _Pride and Prejudice_. She couldn't resist exclaiming, as she jumped off her bike and pointed to the page her friend was on:

 _Oh, isn't this amazing?  
_ _It's my favorite part because  
_ _You'll see  
_ _Here's where she meets Prince Charming  
_ _But she won't discover that it's him  
_ ' _Til Volume Three_

As her friend hurried to write that down, Judy, grinning as if she found that type of love story very romantic and was imagining what it would be like to live it (but with the assumption that she never would) waved good-bye and moved on, passing more who sang:

 _Now it's no wonder that rabbit's come so far  
_ _Her talent will never be topped  
_ _But aside from all those brains  
_ _I'm afraid she's rather strange  
_ _Very different from the rest of us  
_ _She's nothing like the rest of us  
_ _Yes, different from the rest of us is Hopps_

Meanwhile, in an abandoned subway tunnel in Zootopia, Dawn Bellwether pinned a new photo to a map, with several points already marked by similar photos. "Wow, haven't missed a shot, Doug. I'll say this – you're the greatest sniper in the whole world."

"I know," the ram next to her said. "But we don't stand a chance if the mayor keeps catching them. We need someone to expose him without involving us."

"It's true, partner." Bellwether handed him a file as she spoke. "And I've got my sights set on this one."

Doug opened the folder. "A farm girl?"

"She's the one. The lucky rookie I'm going to make a hero."

"But she's..."

"The most unlikely graduate in the Academy."

"I know, but..."

"That makes her the best candidate to earn everyone's admiration and respect when she uncovers a dangerous conspiracy endangering our kind."

The disconcerting scene of the two conspirators plotting to use Judy in some scheme faded back to the bright scene in busy Bunnyburrow as the unsuspecting rabbit wound her way through the shops and stands of her village, ignoring the crowds chattering around her: "Hello! Pardon! Good day! But, yes. You call this fresh?! What lovely grapes! Ten yards. I'll get the knife. This bread, it's stale. They smell..."

Finally, Judy sang out once again:

 _There must be more than this provincial life  
_ _Can't wait to get out and see what I'll find_

Her neighbors took it from there:

 _Look there she goes  
_ _The doe who's strange but special  
_ _Dreaming bigger than carrot crops  
_ _It's a pity and a sin  
_ _She doesn't quite fit in  
_ _Yes, she really is a funny one  
_ _Talented but a funny one  
_ _She really is a funny one...  
_ _That Hopps!_

Not oblivious to her town's opinion of the odd bunny who wasn't content with a future in farming but not caring either, Judy made her way home to break her exciting news.


	3. I Want Adventure

The outdoor scene faded to a scene of Judy, her parents, and too many smaller rabbits to count all swarmed around a dinner table. After a few seconds, the cacophony of hundreds of conversations all taking place at once faded into the background, and the voice of Judy's mother could clearly be heard asking, "So did you have a good time in town today?" as her daughter passed her the mashed potatoes.

"I got my test scores today..." That was old news, but she had wanted to stall before saying what was foremost in her mind. "Mom, Dad... do you think I'm odd?"

Her father scoffed as if the idea was so absurd, it was amusing. " _Our_ daughter? Odd? Where would you get an idea like that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Judy said half-sarcastically. "I don't fit in here... there's no one I can really talk to..."

"Don't you worry," her dad assured her. "Graduation's gonna be the start of a new life for you, right?" Judy tried to smile, even though she knew her parents' hopes for her new life weren't the same as her own.

"When will you get your assignment?" her mother asked with a tone of worry her smile couldn't fully hide.

"I called about that this afternoon," Judy told her. "Most of my classmates already got theirs, but they said I'll find out at the ceremony." That was another reason the urge to celebrate had quickly faded – Judy couldn't celebrate until she knew she was going to Zootopia, the greatest city in the world. She wanted to know _now_ if all those years of studying and training had been worth it! She was sick of waiting!

Her mother shrugged. "Well, it's still no mystery. Bunnyburrow only has one precinct." Judy knew that was her parents' best case scenario – she'd get to be a cop, but she wouldn't get to move to some dangerous big city teeming with predators. As long as they could hope for that, they could be as happy about her career path as she was. Almost.

"I didn't request Bunnyburrow," Judy reminded them. She suddenly felt like she needed some air. She pushed her plate forward and her chair back. "Think I'm done."

"Hey!" her father called after her as she turned to leave. She turned around. "Congratulations, Jude."

"You'll be great," her mother added with a sincere smile. "No matter where they send you."

"And you know we'll miss you even if you're posted two blocks away," her dad said with the same smile.

Judy smiled back. "I'll miss you guys, too. I just want..."

She couldn't think of what to say next, but her mom let her know it wasn't necessary: "We know, honey."

"My sister Cynthia was the same way," said Stu. (Aunt Cindy had gone on to become a schoolteacher.) "You can't grow a tomato from a turnip seed." That got another laugh from Judy. " _But_ if you ever change your mind, there's always an opening at the Hopps Farm..."

"I'll send you my resume," Judy said before walking away from the table, through the door, and up the tunnel out of the burrow.

She loved her parents, and she knew they loved her no matter what, but they were so different. They would never understand her dream, and she would never understand _why_ they couldn't. Once she was above ground and took a few steps from the entrance, Judy started talking to herself: "Can you imagine? They still want me to stay here. Me, spending the rest of my life growing carrots and peas and strawberries..." She grinned at the image and started singing:

 _Farmer Judy Hopps  
_ _Can't you just see it  
_ _Farmer Judy Hopps  
_ _Doting mom and wife  
_ _No, sir! Not me!  
_ _I guarantee it  
_ _I want much more than this provincial life!_

As she'd sung, she'd started running faster and faster until she reached the crest of a hill. She grabbed the tree at the top and spun around the trunk as she resumed singing:

 _I want adventure in the great wide somewhere  
_ _I want it more than I can tell..._

But all of a sudden her burst of passion flickered out into an air melancholy. Leaning against the tree and slumping down to the ground, she sang:

 _And for once it might be grand  
_ _To have someone understand_

She lay down on the ground with her hands behind her head, looking up at the sky, as she sang wistfully, " _I want so much more than they've got planned..._ ", longing not only for freedom but for some kindred spirit who understood her desire. The desire to be more than what everyone saw you as. To do more than what was planned for your species. To prove you were more than what everyone saw when they looked at you. Surely there must be someone else out there who understood how that felt...

With a sigh and a shake of her head, the rabbit stood up and marched down the hill. She didn't have time to worry about silly stuff like that.

The next scene showed her receiving her badge. She got her wish after all.


	4. Something There

There was no singing for a while as Judy said good-bye to her parents, took the train to her new home in Zootopia, and had her first day on the job go the exact opposite of what she expected in every way, including falling for a scam she should have seen through instantly if she hadn't ignored her instincts.

Her immediate reaction when saw the fox step out of the shadows was fear. She should have listened to it, but she made herself fight it. The result was her locking herself in her apartment that night, ready to fall on her bed and cry, feeling more trapped than she ever had in that poor provincial town. When she'd hoped and prayed for adventure in far off places, this hadn't been what she'd had in mind.

Well, she'd asked for it – no one ever said adventure was glamorous. She'd have to accept that her old life was over and this was her life now. Life as a prisoner.

Judy had no idea how long things would have gone on like that if she'd just accepted her new situation and rolled with it. Instead, she broke the rules. Looking back on it later, she wondered what in the world she'd been thinking. She could tell Chief Bogo was _not_ someone you wanted to cross, yet she went ahead and broke all the rules she knew he expected her to follow. How had she expected him to react when he found out?

"Why did you do it?" he demanded after the Little Rodentia incident.

"I'm... I'm sorry," was all she could say at first.

"McHorn warned you not to go in there," Bogo reminded her.

Judy tried to defend herself. "I didn't mean any harm."

"Do you realize what you could have done?!"

"Yes," Judy admitted. Without the adrenaline of chasing a criminal to silence her superego, she could see how much danger her little field trip had put all the smaller creatures in. She shouldn't have been so surprised at how Bogo read her the riot act next, nor at his reaction to the stunt she pulled with Mrs. Otterton. When the distraught wife first stepped out, it looked like it took every ounce of his willpower not to scream "GET OUT!" in Judy's face as he fired her; he certainly looked like that was what he wanted to do.

But, thanks to a convenient _deus ex machina_ (or so it seemed at the time), her adventure was not destined to end there. One thing had definitely changed, though – Judy was no longer afraid of Nick Wilde like she'd been when she'd first seen him. She confronted him with no fear or hesitation, just disgust at his behavior and a determination to do what needed done no matter how he tried to stop her. Whether he liked it or not, she was calling the shots now. She faced him head on, effortlessly countering every verbal blow. They were no longer hustler and victim but equal opponents in a battle of wills.

Their wild run through the forest from a savage predator during a raging storm, however, doing everything they could to protect each other, led to another change...

"Whoah, slow down, Hopps," Bogo said when he arrived on the scene. "Who chased you off the bridge?"

"A savage," Judy tried to tell him. "A horrible, monstrous, savage beast."

No one believed her or Nick. She wondered if everyone thought they were lying or if they were crazy. Judy wasn't even entirely sure she believed it herself. The way Nick came to her rescue when she needed it was even more unbelievable. When he jumped to her defense like that... she never saw that coming.

It took Judy a while to fully absorb what Nick had done for her. Eventually, as they rode sky tram away from the scene, she was able to say, "By the way... thank you... for saving my career."

Nick looked just as shocked by her thanks. He said, "You're welcome," very slowly, like someone speaking a new, unfamiliar language. After a few seconds, he added, "Never let 'em see that they get to you..."

For the next few minutes, it was like she was talking to a completely different fox. "If the world's only gonna see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, there's no point in trying to be anything else."

Once he was done with his story, they rode through the canopy in silence, leaving Judy nothing to do but marvel at how deceiving appearances could be. As they stood there side by side, Judy thought to herself:

 _There's something sweet  
_ _And almost kind  
_ _But he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined  
_ _And now he's dear  
_ _And so unsure  
_ _I wonder why I didn't see it there before_

Judy finally said aloud, "Nick, you are so much more than that." He didn't say anything back at first, just gently pulled away after she touched his arm. He turned farther away from her, lost in his own thoughts:

 _She glanced this way  
_ _I thought I saw  
_ _And when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw  
_ _No, it can't be  
_ _I'll just ignore  
_ _But then she's never looked at me that way before_

Nick finally decided the silence wasn't doing them any good and tried to change the subject, which led to an epiphany that cheered them both up. Judy had no idea how good their chances actually were of getting Bellwether to make their new plan possible, but she felt exhilarated by Nick's idea nonetheless. Too excited, actually. Was it all because of a slim potential lead... or was it something more...?

Not daring to say a word to Nick of what she was thinking, Judy turned away from him and took a deep breath. He was a predator, she was prey... Her mind was racing:

 _New...  
_ _And a bit alarming  
_ _Who'd have ever thought that this could be?  
_ _True...  
_ _That he's no Prince Charming  
_ _But there's something in him that I simply didn't see_

Neither of them was aware that, back at the station, the officers who had watched them on the bridge, eyebrows raised in confusion over the way that fox stood up for Hopps and held the door open for her as they boarded the sky tram, were thinking along the same lines. _Who was he? What was going on here?_ they all wondered. As crazy as the idea was, gradually, they all decided there could only be one explanation.

It would be a first. One by one, the officers who'd responded to the call and those they told back at the station sang their surprise at what seemed to be happening between the bunny and the fox:

 _Well, who'd have thought?  
_ _Well, bless my soul!  
_ _Well, who'd have known?  
_ _Well, who indeed?  
_ _And who'd have guessed they'd come together on their own?  
_ _It's so peculiar  
_ _Wait and see  
_ _A few days more  
_ _There may be something there that wasn't there before_


	5. Horrible, Monstrous Beasts

"What is this place?" Judy whispered as they approached the forbidding, shadowy fortress hidden by the fog, built into the side of a cliff over a very unhealthy drop, surrounded by wolves. Nick said afterwards that it felt like stepping into a Gothic novel. She should have expected something this difficult now, given how easy it had been to get Bellwether's cooperation. Could Manchas actually be in there? Maybe even Otterton...?

In spite of their efforts to be ready for anything, the two trespassers never imagined they'd find what they did inside. The words "incredible" and "impossible" were the only ways to describe it. Savage beasts walking on all fours... the sight was too horrifying for nightmares. But still not as terrifying as the thought of being caught by those wolves. Her parents' phone call made it even worse, not (only) because it gave them away, but it because it made her think she might die here tonight without being able to say good-bye to them. She was careful not to phrase it that way when she called them back in-between typing up her statement and the press conference.

Bogo specifically scheduled the press conference so as to give Judy some time to rest, but she was far too busy thinking and planning during those hours to relax. She didn't tell anyone the new plans she'd made until she saw Nick at City Hall.

After she gave him the pen, he asked her in disbelief, "What did you say?"

"I release you," the grinning Judy confirmed, half-joking. "You're no longer my prisoner." He'd grinned back like the thought of what she was proposing made him just as happy as it did her.

Over the next few months, Judy constantly replayed what happened starting from that point onward in her head, trying to figure out how such a perfect moment had gone so horribly wrong.

Nick, on the other hand, didn't dwell on it for more than a day. The entire walk home from City Hall was spent wondering how he could have been so wrong about Hopps. He'd honestly thought she was different from the prey who had looked down on him his entire life, that she believed predators were just as mammal as prey and just as deserving of freedom and justice, that she didn't see him as an enemy, that she even cared about him... that they could have been...

Nick had no idea what motivated him to turn on the news that night. He couldn't have expected to hear them discussing anything but that press conference or to see anything but clips from it. He certainly wasn't expecting to see Judy retracting what she said or something. She'd made no statements after that, as he knew she wouldn't; she didn't regret a word of it. What she'd said earlier, that was how she truly felt.

At least watching Judy say it again onscreen made Nick realize how pointless it was to be mad at her. When he turned it off, all his anger was gone, leaving behind that familiar feeling of despair. "I'm just fooling myself," he said, shaking his head. "She'll never see me as anything... but a monster." Like everyone else. That was the life he was doomed to forever. "It's hopeless..."


	6. Kill the Beasts!

"The flowers are making the predators go savage... THAT'S IT! THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN MISSING!" There was no time to pack, no time to change, no time to plan, no time to explain herself – she couldn't waste another second here. As soon as she realized what needed done, Judy ran right from the produce stand to the nearest wheeled vehicle, stopping only to yank four or five night howlers out of the ground as she ran past them. She was in such a hurry, she completely forgot to grab the keys to the truck. "Oh, keys, keys keys keys, hurry, come on!" It wasn't until she was ten miles or so down the road that she realized her behavior must have looked somewhat insane to her mom and dad, but she could straighten that out later; right now, all that mattered now was covering the remaining 201 miles as fast as possible.

During her three months back in Bunnyburrow after she quit, Judy picked up the paper every morning with a burning curiosity to know all the details about what was unfolding in Zootopia, only to glance at the front page and realize it was too painful to read more. She gleaned enough information from the headlines and through the grapevine to know things were not improving, but that was all. She didn't realize how much things had changed until she finally returned after getting the missing piece of the puzzle from Gideon and her parents.

Judy knew she'd need help if she was going to prove her theory. Her first thought was Bellwether – the new mayor was doing everything she could to protect the city, to make mammals feel safe, and she'd always been eager to help Judy whenever she'd needed it. If Judy could get Bellwether to believe her theory (and the sheep had never doubted Judy before, even when it had seemed everyone else did), she had no doubt the new mayor would do everything she could to find out who was behind this and stop them.

There was a press conference being held on the steps of City Hall when Judy arrived, but somehow, she was able to find a place to park the truck across the street. She couldn't see who was speaking, but they sounded furious – no wonder the crowd was so riled up. It wasn't until Judy got closer that she saw the speaker was...

"Mayor Bellwether?" Judy said in disbelief.

With everyone instantly turning to stare at Judy, it was easy for the sheep to follow their gaze and spot the latecomer. "Officer Hopps! You've returned," she said brightly.

Nobody stopped Judy from approaching the podium. "What's going on here?" she asked.

"Progress," the mayor answered. "We're finally taking action against the savage pred epidemic."

 _Pred_? No respectable mammal used that word, but instead of gasping in shock, the crowd clapped and cheered. They clearly approved of this new, passionate, vengeful Bellwether. "What are you talking about?" Judy asked. "What action?"

Bellwether began to explain as if she were reciting traffic reports: "Well, for starters, we need to get predators off the streets before they can go savage, so a new hotline will be established to report suspicious behavior in predators. Any who show signs of potentially going savage will be taken in and held for examination until they can be safely determined not to be a threat to public safety."

"But predators _aren't_ going savage," Judy said desperately. "I came to tell you that..."

Underneath the cheers of the crowd, Bellwether said just to Judy, "I asked you to help me three months ago, but you turned me down, so I had to turn to other methods to protect my city."

Judy could barely comprehend what she was hearing, let alone argue with it. Besides, her news was too important to let herself get distracted. "That's why I came back," she said. "I know what's happening to predators and I think how we can stop it."

"So do I," said Bellwether. She picked up a clipboard from the podium and handed it to Judy. "You might like this. I was saving it for the end. It's a list of missing predators currently wanted for examination for signs of savagery."

"Wha-?" Judy's eyes instinctively went to the paper. She was still too confused by the change in the mayor to spare brainpower to process the words on the page, until she reached one name that jumped out at her. Her dumbfounded expression morphed into one of pure rage. "Nick Wilde's not savage!"

"He threatened you at your press conference four months ago," Bellwether said matter-of-factly. "We all saw him, didn't we?"

The crowd's unanimous answer was clear. Judy turned around, facing them. "No, I won't let you..."

A moose called out, "He sold me a one-of-a-kind coin collection... because they were chunks of metal he stamped and molded himself!"

A pig, gesturing to the mammals surrounding him, shouted, "He told us he was raising money for an operation... the operation he was running on the street!"

"He hit the corner of my car with his bike and threatened to have me charged with attempted mammalslaughter!" yelled a hippo.

It was the same all around the square. Nick Wilde clearly hadn't been exaggerating when he'd bragged about his prolific, profitable scams.

"He's a crook!"

"Low-life!"

"Savage!"

"I'm sorry, Judy," Bellwether said, almost tenderly. "I know this is hard to hear, but I have to think of all the innocent mammals in this city who could be hurt by these savages."

"If it wasn't for Nick Wilde, you wouldn't even have known about the savage predators," Judy tried to argue, her fear for Nick making her forget her mission for the moment. "I know what he's done, but he's never attacked anyone. You know he's not dangerous or savage."

Bellwether seemed to study the list in her hands. "Well, you do know him better than we do... I might be willing to reconsider his case if..."

Her tone sent shivers down Judy's spine. "If what...?"

"If you help us protect the city from the real savages."

" _What?_ "

Bellwether repeated what she'd said at their meeting three months ago: "You're a hero to Zootopia, Officer Hopps. The mammals here trust you. While many understand more serious measures need to be taken against the threat of these savage predators, many still don't. If you joined the cause..."

Judy didn't need to hear anymore. "Never!" It had been a shock to see the change in the formerly sweet, gentle, helpful, innocent sheep, but the shock was over. Bellwether had clearly been putting on an act until it was safe to show her true colors to a public that was ready for them.

But why would Bellwether target Nick? To get revenge on Judy for refusing to join her? No, she hadn't known Judy would be coming back; she had no reason think Judy would ever know about anything that happened to Nick. What had Nick done to make Bellwether go after him? She hadn't charged him with anything except "threatening" Judy at that press conference... could it be the mayor knew _that_ incident was part of what prompted Judy to quit? Did she blame Nick for her losing a valuable piece in her game? What else could it be?

The brain runs on different time than the physical world. All of Judy's questions and conclusions raced through her mind in the short time it took the mayor to shrug and tell her, "Have it your way."

As Bellwether resumed her speech, Judy hurried down the steps and back to the truck where she'd left the flowers. There was only one way to stop this madness. Ignoring the voices telling her to stop, step back, she ran up to the podium and leaned into Bellwether's microphone. "Predators _aren't_ going savage, and I can prove it! With these!" She held up the blue flowers for all to see. "Night howlers! Any mammal who ingests them, predator or prey, loses their mind. My parents have seen it with their own eyes. Someone's targeting predators on purpose and making them go savage!"

Judy had been afraid this would get nothing but laughs, rolling eyes, and choruses of, "Oh, please, you expect us to believe that?" and the like. Instead, although there were traces of those reactions, the primary response was wide-eyed gasps of disbelief. Bellwether was right about one thing – they _did_ trust Judy.

A ram, however, spoke up: "Come on, she's just trying to save her friend. Night howlers didn't turn him into criminal!"

A reporter asked Judy, "Is everything they've been saying about Nick Wilde a lie, Judy?"

"Well... no..." was all Judy could stutter before being bombarded with more questions:

"Hah! Told ya'!"

"Is it true he's a career con artist?"

"How is he involved in this?"

"Did he coerce you into defending the savage predators?"

"Isn't he dangerous?"

"No, no!" Judy finally yelled loud enough to shut them up. "He'd never hurt anyone!" How had this council of war against savage predators turned so quickly into a trial for Nick Wilde? No matter – if him asking Judy "Are you afraid of me?" that fatal day was the only image they had of him, Judy had to disillusion them. "Please, I know he looked vicious that day, but he's really kind and gentle. He's my friend."

Bellwether grabbed Judy's shoulder and, laughing as if she was suggesting something completely absurd, said half-sarcastically, "If I didn't know better, I'd think you had feelings for this monster."

Judy instantly pulled away from her and, without thinking, said simply what she was feeling in that instant: "He's no monster, Bellwether... _you_ are!"

Some laughed, some gasped, but Bellwether narrowed her eyes even more, clearly infuriated by the words. "She's as crazy as those savages!" She ripped the flowers out of Judy's hand and threw them to the ground. "She's trying to distract you all from the real danger. It's far worse than we thought. At this rate, no one will accept what a threat all preds are until it's too late. Before you know it, these savage beasts will make off with your children!"

"What?!" Judy exclaimed as gasps of fear tore through the crowd.

"They'll come after them in the night!" said Bellwether.

"No!" Judy tried to say.

Bellwether threw down her clipboard. "This isn't nearly enough! We're not safe until every last one of them is gone for good. I say we kill the beasts!"

Judy covered her mouth in horror as the crowd roared in assent, some beginning to sing:

 _We're not safe until they're dead  
_ _They'll come stalking us at night  
_ _Set to sacrifice our children to their monstrous appetite  
_ _They'll wreak havoc on our city if we let them wander free_

Bellwether joined them:

 _So it's time to take some action now  
_ _It's time to follow me  
_ _In the mist  
_ _Down the road  
_ _In the darkness and the shadows  
_ _It's a nightmare, but don't forget that horrid night  
_ _When this pair  
_ _Found it there  
_ _The hidden Cliffside fortress  
_ _With something truly terrible inside  
_ _Savage beasts!  
_ _They've got fangs  
_ _Razor sharp ones  
_ _Massive paws, killer claws for the feast  
_ _Hear them roar, see them foam  
_ _But we're not going home  
_ ' _Til they're dead  
_ _Good and dead!  
_ _Kill the beasts!_

Judy grabbed her wrist. "No! I won't let you do this!"

Bellwether shook her off. "If you're not with us, you're against us! Get her out of here!" She continued with her speech as two security guards hauled Judy to the edge of the crowd. "We'll rid the city of these beasts? Who's with me?!"

It was clear there was nothing Judy could do to stop this lynch mob. As soon as the guards left her, she ran for it. "I have to find Nick," she said to herself. "This is all my fault? What am I going to do?" She had to find who was really behind this and expose the truth before it was too late.

Word spread quickly about the incident in the square. By the time the riot was over, several windows were shattered, multiple trash cans had been set on fire, and more than one car was destroyed, but no one had been seriously hurt (half the papers the next day praised the lynch mob for their forbearance, while the other half encouraged them to fight their enemies "by any means necessary").

It was during this turmoil that Judy found Nick hiding under a bridge in the park. He knew what danger he was in but not what part she'd played in trying to stop it or even that she was back in the city (Bellwether had been careful to have the press mention Officer Judy Hopps' involvement as little as possible). She spotted him from the stone bridge above him. "Nick!"

He looked up at the voice and impulsively gasped, "Judy?" before catching himself and turning away from her.

He refused to look at her again until after her tearful apology. "Don't worry, Carrots, I'll let you erase it... in forty-eight hours."

They walked towards each other but stopped a few inches apart. Judy couldn't think of anything else to say, so Nick let himself say what he'd felt but had had no time to say when he'd first seen her: "You came back..."

"Of course I came back," said Judy. "I couldn't let them..." She fell into his arms. "Oh, this is all my fault. If only I'd gotten here sooner." They hugged, smiled, and (in Judy's case) cried some more before heading to her truck and getting to work.

Thanks to Weaselton and Mr. Big, it took them far less time to find their culprit than Judy believed it would have taken her had she still been on the force, going by the book. Although it would have been nice to have more backup when they were fighting off those three rams. They managed to escape them, however, with a decent sample of evidence if not as much as Judy had been hoping for.

Once they got out of the subway tunnel, Judy thought their troubles were over. That delusion died as soon as she saw the ram standing in the opposite doorway. Her and Nick's mutual order to "Run!" was hardly necessary. When they found themselves crouching behind exhibits, trying to hide in the shadows, she wasn't surprised to hear Bellwether's voice calling for her; she had calculated a 50% chance the mayor was involved in this.

They were miraculously saved by Nick's fondness for blueberries.


	7. Beauty and the Beast

The scenes showing Bellwether being arrested, the afflicted predators being cured, and the ceremony where Nick received his badge were followed by a police officers' ball. Judy and Nick arrived together. It was Judy's first, so she had no idea how they usually went, but she found something suspicious in how she and Nick were asked to start off the dancing. Well, they had both come simply because it seemed like an appropriate way to celebrate his joining the force.

A slow, sweet, romantic song played as they danced: " _Tale as old as time, true as it can be..._ "

The scene quickly faded to flashbacks of their adventure...

Judy blackmailing the reluctant fox into helping her: " _Barely even friends_ "

Nick standing up for her to Bogo: " _Then somebody bends unexpectedly_ "

The two of them riding the sky tram: " _Just a little change, small to say the least_ "

Nick's reaction to Judy laying her hand on his arm: " _Both a little scared, neither one prepared_ "

The two of them excitedly planning their next move with the traffic cameras: " _Beauty and the beast_ "

Their strikingly similar ordeals at the paws of Gideon Gray and the Junior Ranger Scouts: " _Ever just the same_ "

Judy impressing Nick by sneaking them into Cliffside: " _Ever a surprise_ "

The two of them sneaking into the subway lair, then running up into the museum: " _Ever as before, ever just as sure as the sun will rise_ "

Their bickering after Judy caught him in his popsicle hustle, at the DMV, outside the limo yard: " _Tale as old as time, tune as old as song_ "

Their reunion under the bridge: " _Bittersweet and strange, finding you can change, learning you were wrong_ "

The two refusing to leave each other while hiding in the museum: " _Certain as the sun rising in the east_ "

The song finished as the flashbacks faded back to the present:

 _Tale as old as time  
_ _Song as old as rhyme  
_ _Beauty and the beast_

No one else was dancing, too engrossed in happily watching the unusual couple:

 _Tale as old as time  
_ _Song as old as rhyme  
_ _Beauty and the beast_

After two more scenes showing the two new partners first at work one morning and then in their patrol car, the film came to an end:

" _You know you love me."_

" _Do I know that...? Yes. Yes, I do."_

* * *

"So what'd ya' think?" Nick asked Judy as they left the theater that night.

Judy grinned and replied, "Took a few liberties with the real story, didn't they?"

"I don't know, I thought they captured the spirit of the actual events pretty good," Nick said in the tone of one quoting an opinion they found more amusing than illuminating.

Judy laughed but admitted, "Yeah, that they did." For some reason, they both felt awkward discussing what they'd just watched with each other; it was surreal to think of millions of mammals watching how you'd fallen in love and gotten together. Still, she managed to add, "It was good. I like _La Belle et La Bête_ stories." She continued as they walked to the garage, "Definitely better than that version we saw last month."

Both of them were more comfortable bashing that film than discussing tonight's. "The one where the heroine comes from a backward, small town of completely paranoid psychos who happily bully anyone born female or different?" Nick knew Judy's feelings about it exactly.

"The one where her constant longing for the big city of Paris where they apparently had different values than the farming towns at the same point in history says pretty clearly how morally and intellectually superior the civilized residents of big cities are compared to the prejudiced, small-minded, evil residents of small towns? Yep, that one." Judy groaned. As bored as she'd been in Bunnyburrow, it had disgusted her to see a film portray small farm towns in flyover country as the home of ignorant barbarians while the poor, persecuted victim of a heroine wished to go back to the city where everyone was apparently accepted and lived in harmony. The message was pretty clear: city good, small town bad.

Seeing such prejudice onscreen had made Judy go home and put on an animated version she'd watched as a kid; that heroine hadn't fit in in her hometown, either, and they'd been terrified of the predator, but the town wasn't portrayed as a nightmare to live in. They weren't too actively friendly towards the heroine, but they didn't actively bully or persecute her; that was what made the climax so shocking and terrifying. And the town hadn't been compared to some idealized city, so their villainy wasn't attributed to where they came from.

Nick understood her indignation; for his part, he found it hilariously ironic that a film supposedly about the evils of prejudice could be guilty of such prejudice. He'd decided the message must be, "Remember, kids, predators and strong-minded females aren't evil or dangerous – small towners are evil and dangerous."

As they climbed in her car and Judy started it up, Nick said, "The opening narration in this one was definitely better. I mean, narration over stills makes sense, but why have a narrator describe what you're watching actors doing?"

Judy nodded. "And the enchantress in the original fairy tale was the villain. You don't want to make her the main villain, fine, but portraying her as _right_? Making her a good guy? Implying that everything she put the prince and his servants through was the right thing to do?! What she did was as twisted and evil as it gets. That wasn't a nice thing to do!"

Nick laughed at her tone during that last sentence. "And what about those scenes where she was plotting to escape? They just make her look stupid and passive for not following through. I mean, really, it's like they were thrown in at the last minute, like she forgot she even had that plan. In that old cartoon, it was clear there was no way she could escape, so they didn't have to stop the story by making her try but not going through with it for... no obvious reason."

"And don't get me started on his tragic backstory," Judy said with a roll of her eyes. " 'His dad beat him, so he turned out to be a jerk, so you can feel sorry for him, which we think will make your attraction to him less disturbing, but it actually makes it more disturbing and not in a good way.' Oh, brother."

"Hey, tragic backstories can be done _very_ well," Nick said in sarcastic annoyance. "In Japan."

"Or in your case," Judy said softly. "I thought they told your story _really_ well."

There was a pause before Nick asked her, "Why would they think that was when you started to fall for me?"

"Because the director asked me, and I told him," Judy confessed. She was quiet for a second, then said, "That song... it really did capture what I was feeling then. Perfectly."

"Yeah," Nick whispered. There was a gap longer than necessary before he added, "Me, too." Another pause, then he grinned and said, "I thought their portrayal of you was spot on in the beginning."

Judy had to smile at that. "You didn't even know me then... but you're right. And that song at the end... fit us to a tee, don't you think?"

"I'd never believe it wasn't written just for us."

After pondering it for a few seconds, Judy said, "Even if they had to make a few changes, all the important stuff matched up. We did make a great _La Belle et La Bête_ story, didn't we?"

"As certain as the sun, whatever that means."

* * *

 _Seriously, Disney, why would you make two remakes of the same film in two years?_


End file.
